Hubble Telescope

I have two zucchini loafs in the oven, my son asleep in his bassinet and my husband just left for his second overnight shift for NASA. While I'm waiting for the bread to finish, I'm just going to take a moment to explain how historic this shuttle mission is. To put it very briefly of what James does for NASA, he works for Boeing contracted to NASA. He studies the thermal signatures of the shuttle, to make sure it doesn't burn up or freeze. This mission is the last mission to the Hubble Telescope. The Hubble Telescope is located 300 nautical miles from Earth and it gives us an extended eye to the unknown universe. The Atlantis crew is going up to Hubble one last time to make final repairs. NASA hopes that these repairs would last Hubble about 10 years before it no longer works. Currently NASA is working on another telescope that will go out much farther than Hubble. One of the reasons that this mission is so dangerous is because IF something were to happen to the Atlantis shuttle, the Endeavour would have to launch in order to go up and save the crew. During normal missions, it is not a big deal because the shuttle is docked to the space station. But for this mission, there is no safe haven for the crew. The odds are there, but we're all praying that they are slim. Anyway, this is one last maintenance for the historic Hubble telescope. It has given us such beautiful images to look at. This image has often be referred to as "The Eye of God."Well, my zuchinni bread is done and I'm off to bed!

Fun Foto Friday!

I swear he wasn't crying! He was just sucking on his hand. Fun at Pac Sun!

Knives

So I was chopping up some green onion today and I was frustrated because I had to sharpen my knife, YET AGAIN! I use to think my mom was weird because every time she took out her knife, she sharpened it. Well, now that I cook all the time, now I need to have a sharp knife all the time. James loves watching "How It's Made" and he saw a special on ceramic knives. These knives are so awesome, you don't have to sharpen them! The Kyocera knives were featured and we decided to get them for my mom for Christmas one year. Keep in mind, my mom has been using a knife for decades. She can chop, peel, dice, slice.. Like no one's business. And when we got those for her, she actually cut herself! The reason being, the ceramic knives are deceptive. They are extremely light to the touch, but incredibly sharp! So another tool that I need for my kitchen someday... Going back to my green onion, I made Hot and Sour Soup today. Here is my recipe:

Hot and Sour Soup

4 cups of chicken broth
2 tbsp cornstarch
4 slices of tofu
1/4 lb mushrooms
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp black pepper
1 egg - beaten
1 cup bean sprouts
1 chopped green onion

Combine 1/4 cup of chicken broth and corn starch. Combine the remaining chicken broth, tofu, mushrooms, soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, green onion and pepper over high heat. Mix well, bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, stir in the cornstarch mixture until it thickens. Slowly stir in the beaten egg to form egg strands. Add the bean sprouts and simmer for 1-2 minutes.

Family! Woo hoo!

My dad came for two weekend visits to see Alex. During the week, he went to Alabama on business, so Houston was a half way point for him. Anyway, my daddy FINALLY got to spend some quality time with Alex. He got to feed, hold and burp him. But of course, when Alex dirtied his diaper, my dad said "I've already done it, it's Mom and Dad's turn." Apparently my dad was worried Alex was going to cry when they met, but it was quite the opposite. They both had a great time together. Here is a picture of my boys, just missing my brother!


My dad left yesterday afternoon. After we took my dad to the airport, James, Alex and I were just laying down for a short nap when we got the call that James' brother Ronnie, wife Eighmy and daughter Alina were coming to visit too! In case you don't know, Alex and his cousin Alina are the same age. Eighmy and I were both in labor at the same time. Alex was born at 1:53pm and Alina was born at 5:05pm. We haven't seen them since the babies were only a week old, so it was great to have them over. The babies got to see each other and everyone ate all of my oatmeal cookies! What the heck?! Anyway, here are some pictures to see the difference in sizes between Alex and Alina. As posted before, Alex weighs 17 lbs 7 oz and his cousin Alina is 10 lbs 12 oz.



Tonight I'm making Korean Yellow Croaker (have never found this except in Asian markets) and cooked tofu. For the Yellow Croaker recipe, I'm sure you could do this recipe for trout, or any other type of whole fish. I haven't tried it yet, but I plan on it in the future. They are my mom's recipes, very simple but extremely tasty:

Yellow Croaker

2 Yellow Croakers (fish)
2 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
2 tsp garlic powder

Clean the yellow croakers and add the salt, pepper and garlic on the fish. Let it sit for an hour to marinate. Put the fish on a skillet, medium heat. Cover the fish and let it lightly brown on each side. Eat fish whole, make sure you warn those you serve it to! Look out for fish bones. We usually use chopsticks to eat this.

Cooked Tofu

1 package of medium firm tofu
1 tbl salt
1 tbl sugar

Cut the tofu into cubes and put into a bowl. Add the salt and sugar. Make sure each cube has some sugar and salt on them. Put the tofu on skillet on medium heat. Let it lightly brown on each side.

Four

Go to your fourth folder and post the 4th picture in that folder. Then tag 4 friends to do the same.

This is from Thanksgiving 2008. From the left: James, me, my mother in law Shirley, my sister in law Eighmy and my brother in law Ronnie. Eighmy and I were (obviously) both pregnant at this time and James was working over night shifts for the shuttle mission. He was running on energy drinks at that point. I tag James, Kara, Tina and my mystery friends!

Note to self..

ALWAYS put vinegar in the water when making hard boiled eggs.. More on this later..

Growing baby

It's all known that Alex is a big boy. He had his 2 month appointment today. Poor baby had to get his shots :-( Now, James and I have been aware that Alex does weigh quite a bit. We know that he is heavy but he also pretty long too. So we got his official weight and length at his appointment and this boy is 17 lbs 7 oz and 25.25 inches long! He is in the 97th percentile for length but he is certainly off the charts for weight! Doctors expect babies to double their birth weight by 6 months, but it looks like Alex is going to attain that by his 3rd month! I asked the doctor if I should be concerned and she said no since all I've been doing is breastfeeding. And of course, breastfeeding is the best thing for both mom and the baby. To give you an idea of where he stands on the chart, here it is for boys (yes, it's different for boys and girls):


Looks like I need to go shopping for more clothes. He's growing so fast! So tonight, I'm making chicken enchiladas and here is my recipe:

1-1.5 pounds of chicken (breast or thigh)
4 cups of chicken broth
1 tsp of Chili Powder
2 tsp of black pepper
2 tsp of garlic powder
2 cans of enchilada sauce
1 can of diced Mexican tomatoes
1/4 cup of diced spicy peppers of your choice
1 small chopped green bell pepper
1 cup of Mexican shredded cheese
8 corn or 5 flour tortillas

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put the chicken broth in a saucepan, add the black pepper and garlic powder. Add the chicken into the broth mixture and bring to a boil. Leave chicken till it is cooked thoroughly. Drain the broth, then shred the chicken.

In a saucepan, combine the shredded chicken, chopped bell pepper, chili powder, diced spicy peppers and diced Mexican tomatoes. Add 1.5 cans of enchilada sauce and 3/4 cups of cheese and cook over medium heat till sauce thickens.

Put the mix into the tortillas and roll them into a light greased casserole dish, laying the enchiladas side by side. Pour the remaining enchilada sauce over all the rolled enchiladas. Put the dish into the oven and cook for 10 minutes. Take the dish out of the oven and add the rest of the cheese on top of enchiladas. Let the dish cook in the oven for another 5 minutes, then serve.

Tip: If using corn tortillas, use the microwave and a lightly damped paper towel to soften the enchiladas.